Green, Nathan 'Nearest'

Impact on the world

Believed to be the first documented African American distiller, Green worked as an enslaved distiller in Tennessee and is credited with teaching the craft of whiskey-making to a young Jack Daniel, who would go on to found one of the world's most recognizable whiskey brands; Green's own contribution to the foundational techniques of Tennessee whiskey went almost entirely uncredited in popular accounts for well over a century.

Life & background

Born around 1820 and enslaved in Tennessee after being born in Maryland, Green worked as a distiller, developing and refining techniques that became central to the production of Tennessee whiskey, including what later became known as the Lincoln County Process. He mentored a number of distillers during his career, most consequentially a young Jack Daniel, to whom he is credited with teaching the craft that Daniel would later use to found his namesake distillery; Green's son also went on to become a successful distiller in his own right. Green's role in Tennessee whiskey's origins remained little known outside specialist circles until recent historical research brought it to wider public attention, leading to the 2017 founding of Uncle Nearest, a whiskey brand named in his honor and built specifically to recognize his contribution to an industry that had long credited only his student.

Sources

1. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture; The New York Times (Clay Risen, 2016); Tennessee General Assembly recognition (2019)